Lisa Tellinghuisen and Kaylee Haas

World Geography Block 2

Russia

Mountains/Plateaus

Ural Mountains: Forms a natural border between Europe and Asia, highest point is at Mt. Narodnaya at 6,214 ft, extend to 1,640 miles
Altai Mountains: Extend 1,200 miles from the West Siberian Plain through China and name derived from the Turks/Mongolian meaning "golden"
Putoran Plateau: Highest point is Mt. Kamen at 5,581 feet and has a tundra climate

Plains
Russian Plain: Also called East European Plain, extends over 1.5 million sq. miles with an average of 560 ft in height. Divided into subregions such as the Valday Hills and Caspian Sea lowlands

Water System
Volga River: Longest River in Europe, extends 2,300 miles, carries 1/2 of all river freight in Russia
Moscow-Volga Canal: Completed in 1937 and links all waterway trade routes from St. Petersburg to the Gulf of Finland
Volkhav River: River in NW Russia, 139 miles long and 31,000 sq miles deep, used to be important in the Baltic Sea/Black Sea trade routes

Climate and Vegetation
Flora:
Honeysweet, Foxberry, Russian almond, Swedish cornel, Alpine Aster, Liverleaf, and Silver Magnolia

Fauna:
Arctic fox, Wild boar, Roe deer, Mink, Maten, White hare, Eagles, Skylarks, Saiga antelope

Climate Regions:
HighlandHumid ContinentalSemiaridSubarcticTundra

Population and Culture
Capital- MoscowCurrent Population- 143,782,338 (2004)Ethnicity- Russian(81.5%), Tatar(3.8%), Ukrainian(3%), Chuvash(1.2%), Bashkir(.9%), Belarusian(.8%), Moldovian(.7%), Other(8.1%) at 1989Religions- Russian Orthodox, Muslim, etc.Type of Government- federation

Society:
-often only one child- live in small apartments- pride themselves that they are able to live in hard conditions- are extremely polite

History and Government
Revolution & Change
Russian Revolution:
In 1917, the Russians no longer wanted the rule of the last Czar of Russia, Nicholas II. The government was extremely corrupted and while they tried to overthrow of the czar, the economy was disrupted and caused the market to plummet

February Revolution:
Industrial workers went on strike in St. Petersburg and caused the St. Petersburg army to open fire and a week after the first day of the strike, Nicholas II stepped down from the throne for his brother, but he refused, causing the autocracy to end. Later the
Early history:
Originally a group of cities that later expanded into an empire. First "Russians" were Norsemen, Danes, and Scandinavians. Norsemen moved to Western Europe, Danes moved to England, and the Scandinavians moved to Eastern Europe. The Russian empire first flourished in 882 after the Scandinavians captured Kiev which was originally ruled by the Slavs. Over 100 years later when Yaroslav the Wise succeeded the throne and established the first state region, Greek Orthodoxy. He also made laws, alliances with others, and encouraged the use of arts.

Economy
Natural Resources
-20% of the world's production of oil & natural gases
-Reserves of:Iron ore, nickel, platinum, copper, tin, lead, diamonds, gold, and titanium-1/5 of the world's timber(conifers)
Economic ActivitiesGDP has increased:
Contributions to GDP--Service: 61.2%-Industrial: 33.9%-Agricultural: 4.9%-Tourism: 9%

Forestry:-45% of Russia is covered by forests
Fishing:-80% of the fish is exports in 2001
Tourism:-An approximate of 5 million people work in tourism-23 million people visited Russia in 2004
Transportation and Communications
-Roads: Least emphasized type of travel, only 934,000 km of road, only 41% use the roads-Railroads: 26% of the rail is electrified while they carry over 1.2 tons of freight each year-Air Service: 22% of the population use this but use has declined due to higher airplane prices-Water Transportation: Physical geography limits the use of the waterways in the winter because the rivers run south to north instead of east to west-Public Transportation: Most rely on buses as there isn't much emphasis on cars except in the major cities but there needs to be major repairs

Global Issues
-Oil Prices: Low oil prices caused Russian equity to lower as well which caused the banks to lower their credit ratings
-Corruption: Russia is ranked 133 out of 144 in institutional environment and have a higher corruption rate than Uganda and Togo
-Workers: Over 50% of Russian professionals seek to leave threatening to affect the countrie's ability to attract guest workers

Russia-Tellinghuisen, Haas B2

Lisa Tellinghuisen and Kaylee Haas

World Geography Block 2

Russia